Sunday, 17 September 2017

MIND THE...MEN

What do we want?

Not to be sexually harassed on the tube.

Where do we want it?
In which ever damn well coach we want to sit in.

I’m talking about women only carriages, the idea that’s been floating around
since Chris Williamson’s proposal that they should, at least, be considered in
the last few weeks. In the last year, 1,448 sexual offences have been
reported on trains – more than double the number reported in 2012-13 (whether
that’s more actual incidents or more reporting, we do not know). From this
stems the ingenious idea of women only carriages: by segregating women on
public transport, they cannot be sexually assaulted.

And the more I hear about it, the more furious I get because since when,
in the 21st century, was gender segregation the answer? As a young
woman, who occasionally travels on trains, alone, at night, I sometimes feel intimidated. I've been verbally abused on trains, I've received rape threats, I’ve
witnessed a man openly masturbating, and I’ve been intimidated by groups of
drunk men who insist on sitting as near to you as they possibly can and, quite
frankly, chatting shit. I agree that it’s not acceptable. But those are a
handful of instances, and I use the train and the tube nearly every day. 99% of
the time I do not feel threatened, and only move away from someone because I’m
too jealous of their McDonald’s to watch them devour it. By creating women only
coaches, we normalise sexual assault (or verbal, or harassment or any kind of unpleasant and unacceptable experience) on public transport, treating it as an inevitability. We also
normalise the idea that all men are sexual predators, and should be avoided
when travelling alone. We tell women and girls that they are unsafe unless they
are sitting in a particular carriage, and we obstruct their freedom to sit
wherever they want. We treat men like criminals, who cannot be trusted to
travel home without touching someone up.

Women are not the only people who fear and face
violence on public transport. Post-Brexit vote and, more recently,
post-Manchester and London Bridge attacks, there have been reports of increased
racial attacks – namely Islamaphobic attacks – sometimes on public transport.
What if the Labour MP had suggested that, as well as having women only carriages,
we would also have Muslim only carriages? Or maybe gay only carriages? Or
racist white people only carriages? Would that be deemed acceptable? No.
Because, yet again, segregation is not the answer, and marginalising groups who
have worked and protested hard for their right to be respected members of
society, safe in their own communities, it is nothing but a backwards step.
Indeed, it ignores the fact that men may also feel unsafe travelling alone –
maybe threatened by sexual assault, or robbery, or from being beaten up by
other angry, drunk passengers and just being in the wrong place at the wrong
time.

How
do we enforce this is another question on everyone’s lips. How do we
make sure that there are no men in the women’s carriages, and does that require
having more guards on trains (a topic there is already huge amounts of
discussion…and striking about)? Is it the responsibility of the woman to
position herself in this carriage, and who do we blame if she is sexually
assaulted whilst sitting in the ‘normal’ carriage? Is it her own fault, and are
we simply reverting to a system of victim shaming? And are we saying that ‘anything
goes’ in the ‘normal’ carriages? Are these carriages available at any time of
day, or just late at night – because, let me tell you, it doesn’t need to be
dark for someone to feel vulnerable.

Women only carriages encourage women to be afraid
of men. They act to demonise thousands of innocent men. They fail to recognise
other vulnerable people. They promote segregation as a necessary, and sexual
assault as a normality.

Today, should our greatest worry to be MIND THE GAP or to MIND THE MEN?